Significance of ambulatory electroencephalography for differential diagnosis of epilepsy and syncope

摘要

BACKGROUND:Twenty-four hour ambulatory electroencephalography(AEEG) provides advantages for continuous electroencephalogram,monitoring brief loss of consciousness complicated by suspect or mild limb spasm.OBJECTIVE:To explore the significance of AEEG for differentially diagnosing epilepsy and syncope,compared to EEG.DESIGN,TIME AND SETTING:Sixty patients with brief loss of consciousness,complicated by sus-pect or mild limb spasm,were selected from Suqian People's Hospital between January 2006 and June 2007.PARTICIPANTS:Sixty participants comprised 34 males and 26 females,aged 13-64 years.According to clinical symptoms prior to the study,36 patients were initially diagnosed with epilepsy and 24 with syn-cope.METHODS AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Abnormalities and epileptiform discharge were detected using EEG and AEEG,and the diagnostic value of the two methods for epilepsy and syncope was compared.RESULTS:A total of sixty patients were included in the final analysis.Abnormal AEEGs were observed in 37 cases(62%) and epileptiform discharge AEEGs in 23 cases(38%),both of which were significantly greater than EEGs [37%(22/60),18%(11/60),respectively,P < 0.01,0.05].The detection rate of abnor-mal AEEG and epileptiform discharge in the epilepsy group [75%(27/36),47%(17/36),respectively] was significantly greater than in the syncope group [42%(10/24),25%(6/24),respectively,P < 0.01,0.05].CONCLUSION:AEEG can improve detection probability of epileptiform discharge and exhibits signifi-cant differences in the differential diagnosis of epilepsy and syncope.